Seven people and a dog are “extremely fortunate” to have escaped an Abbotsford house fire unscathed, according to an assistant fire chief.
Abbotsford Fire Rescue Service assistant chief Craig Leighton said fire crews attended the fire early Tuesday morning.
“We attended a house on Rockhill Place … for a reported structure fire. When crews arrived, they found heavy fire involvement on the rear of the house on the second story,” Leighton said.
“Crews made an aggressive attack and knocked the fire down quite quickly.”
There were seven tenants in the home, along with a dog, and all made it out safely without injuries. That was “was extremely fortunate,” Leighton said, given that there were no reported smoke alarms in the house.
“It’s a big issue,” he said, noting that fire officials “highly recommend” that residents clean their smoke alarms once a year, change the batteries once a year and test them once a month to ensure they are working.
The fire at the house, Leighton said, caused water and fire damage to the inside, as well as some damage to the rear of the house.
“They’re going to be displaced from the home for some time,” Leighton said of the residents of the house.
He said investigators are still looking into the cause of the fire and where it originated.